SPORA: Rotting Unconscious
8 OCTOBER—12 DECEMBER 2025
Exhibition
→ ifk Arkade

Sigmund Freud compared fungal processes to the workings of dreams as early as 1900. In his view, the tangles of dream-thoughts remain largely inaccessible like the underground »Mycelium« of a mushroom. C. G. Jung expands Freud’s metaphor to a collective unconscious, while Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari map unconscious desire as a rhizomatic multiplicity. Contemporary feminist and eco‑critical writers further this lineage toward psycho‑ecology, insisting that the psyche also implies relations to the more‑than‑human.

The interdisciplinary collective SPORA, co-founded by Charlotte Janis and Roberto Dell’Orco, adds another twist to this story of conceptual shifts by transforming the underground exhibition space of the ifk into a living, rotting library. At the heart of the project are books that deal with the theme of the unconscious and that will be literally digested and transformed by the tangible workings of fungi, namely Pleurotus ostreatus. Over the course of the show, fungal hyphae will weave through the pages, reorganizing cellulose, ink, and thought alike—until edible fruiting bodies sprout along the book spines.

You are not only invited to observe these exciting processes and participate in several workshops, but also to submit books that engage with the theme of the unconscious and that you consider worthy of transformation. It would be greatly appreciated if you include a note with your thoughts on this matter along with the books you send.

We welcome any book donations sent to the following post office box, which will be open until 20 September:

ROTTING UNCONSCIOUS
P.O. Box 0025
Bennogasse 1
1080 Vienna
Austria

We would be delighted if you joined us at the ifk Arkade from 8 October onwards to watch your book transform—and perhaps even taste it!